I know this has been beaten to death but what makes certain drivers think its a good idea to get close to someone on a bicycle and then lay on the horn? Just 30 minutes ago I was riding on a heavily traveled four land road. This is a tourist area and bicycles at this time of the year are ubiquitous. Not so much on this particular road but in general. The road has wide shoulders, I’m guessing eight feet and I was riding in the two feet furthest from the travel lanes - nowhere near traffic. This asshole got pretty close and laid on the horn as if he was about to hit me. He scared the shit out of me as he zoomed by IN THE PASSING LANE! You could have, quite literally, driven a bus between us. I promptly flipped him the bird (I gotta stop doing that. It’ll probably get me killed some day.) but I guess he didn’t see or care. There were no other cars anywhere around. Maybe he had a passenger who though it would be funny and reached over and honked the horn or maybe it was an accident. And maybe Trump will go down in history as our greatest President.
Not ten minutes later I was on a road in a commercial district going very slow due to congestion. Different driver, same thing. Now, you may think “Hey, maybe its you!” but I assure you I was being careful and following the rules in both instances. If you feel you really must sound your horn, a quick toot will do it. Blasting the horn at close range is stupid and unsafe. I cycle some and drive a lot more. My observation is that asshole drivers outnumber asshole bikers by a huge margin.
I’ve got to take exception to your last statement. You probably get passed by hundreds, if not thousands, of cars as you ride and a few of them act like jerks. Let’s be generous and say that 10% of them are jerkish. I’d say that at least 10% of the cyclists I pass are equally jerkish (in other ways, like riding side-by-side in single lanes where it’s impossible to pass, ignoring traffic control devices, and splitting lanes in inappropriate conditions).
I don’t cycle as much as I used to, but I do ride a motorcycle and I’m often embarrassed by the way other motorcyclists behave. I’ve been equally embarrassed by other cyclists.
The bad ones refuse to obey the rules of the road by sailing through stop signs, not yielding to pedestrian traffic (“Hey, I’m peddling here!”), riding on sidewalks (it’s called a sideWALK, okay?), and not letting pedestrians on walk/bike trails know that they are about to overtake (“On your left!”), which is a safety and courtesy issue.
I encountered asshole bikers the other day. Riding side by side at 15 mph down a fairly busy road. I didn’t honk though, but I gave the stink eye as I passed.
Was there room to pass if they stayed near the edge? Or would that have put them at risk?
Cyclists are allowed to take the lane for safety reasons. Not sure if it applies to all states but in California, bicycles are legally vehicles, equal to cars and just as subject to traffic laws.
Depends on the jurisdiction. For example: some officially designated bike trails in Northern Virginia are sidewalks and children under a certain age are allowed to ride on any sidewalk.
I pit all the asshole drivers who this that bicyclists using public infrastructure are jerks. While this has been improving with exposure it is still a problem.
If a lane is 8 feet wide the SAFE and proper action is for even a single cyclist to take the entire lane, you as a car driver are not a special super citizen that has more rights because you are sitting on your ass and twiddling your feet to move. Get over yourself, and learn to share.
Cars have pretty poor stop sign compliance rates, and to expect this to change when the mode of transportation changes to bicycles is absurd.
Quit looking at your damn phone!!! You are controlling a multi-ton weapon, and when you look at email/txts/twitter while driving you are do different that an idiot randomly firing a gun towards a populated area. You are literally choosing to put others lives at risk for entertainment purposes.
Most of this wouldn’t be a problem if people just consider people…well people.
As a non-cyclist myself I would guess drivers are tend to be less knowledgeable or lack familiarity with the various legalities of cycling in traffic. I’ve learned a fair amount watching helmet cam videos on youtube.
Every group has its members who are willfully inconsiderate of laws and courtesy.
Funny, I can show studies that demonstrate that bicyclists do have similar compliance when it is a high risk situation.
I think you are suffering from in-group, out-group bias.
But thank you for pointing out that bicyclists are in the wrong because they aren’t sciopaths, it is good to see that you think that car drivers are more correct because the person that they will kill or mame is not themselves.
Will that claim of moral superiority due to self preservation help clear your conscience when you don’t come to a complete stop and hit a pedestrian? Will you still feel superior because your put another humans life at risk but didn’t care because your own was fairly safe due to a massive metal cage?
Personally I would be far more bothered by my actions if my choices were responsible in hurting another individual who had no role in that decision vs my own bad decisions leading to an injury to myself.
For my world view, the attitude presented in your post is far more morally repugnant.
I’ve driven, like, thirty times in the past 15 years and always come to a complete stop.
As a pedestrian or passenger, I’ve seen too many bicyclists nearly end up as someone’s hood ornament after blowing a stop and not noticing the turning vehicle.
Confirmation bias, obviously as someone who only drives twice a year for decades you are not a typical driver, but you will also remember close calls and those you don’t identify with while ignoring all of the times that didn’t result in near crashes.
Once again, humans are really really bad at math. Statistics show that per mile traveled bicycling is actually safer than walking.
But guess what, I also make a point to comply with stop signs, in cars and on bikes. But the plural form of anecdote is not data.
While I will continue to follow traffic laws as I am a “vehicular cyclist” you are conveniently ignoring that while unsafely running any traffic device is a risk there is significant evidence that bicyclists, traveling at a slower speed can safely treat a stop sign as a yield without much increased risk.
In fact if you google “idaho stop” you will see that some groups (of which I am not a member) have been trying to push these laws across the country. And in fact Idaho found that.
But ya, if you don’t identify with or demonize bicyclists you will tend to notice the evidence that confirms your existing bias. Unfortunately that is a universal human trait.
The curious thing is how you are obviously not a daily driver yet you still will explain away the drivers actions while attributing the bicyclists actions as a moral failing.
I’m a cyclist, so if I have any bias in the matter, it’s probably in favor of fellow cyclists. And I still see an awful lot of really bad cyclists. I’m not even talking about hogging the lane (which is legal but rude and foolish) or ignoring stop signs: I mean ignoring red lights and riding on the wrong side of the road. And I really wish that the police would ticket these scofflaws, because how can we expect to be extended the same rights as other drivers when we’re not held up to the same responsibilities?
That said, there are some real jerks out there in motor vehicles, too. Not all that many, but there are definitely some. I’ve been honked unnecessarily, too. I’ve also been cut off, and had garbage thrown at me. What’s most baffling, though, is on at least two occasions, I’ve had drivers yell at me because I wasn’t running red lights. I don’t know what the logic is, there.
What close calls? “As a pedestrian or passenger,” not a driver. I take public transportation, walk, and, yes, bicycle. Though bicycling was much more often back when I was a teen.